Your year 7 students could be learning science from a book that's designed from first principles to help all abilities grasp the difficult ideas.
Understanding Science - teaches all the knowledge in year 7 (5-year plan) - re-teaches essential concepts from primary school - makes the concepts easy to learn and visual - uses worked examples to help students apply - develops understanding using thinking questions
What teachers say about Understanding Science
"I think this book assimilates all the latest research based evidence on how learning takes place and uses it to display information in a very clear, engaging and supportive way.By combining real-life examples and triggering inquisitiveness in the reader, this book engages students not just to learn science but to comprehend concepts, leading to a deeper understanding of science. This is done by presenting and more importantly organising knowledge using research based evidence on how learning takes place. Text and pictures are cleverly combined for strong and supportive dual coding process. Active reading strategies, used throughout the book, reinforce deep knowledge assimilation.”
The digital version of Understanding Science 1 is available here on VitalSource - the world’s #1 eTextbook reader for students. It provides a high-quality reading experience as well as extras, such as reading aloud and study tools.
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Why isn't there a Year 8 book?
The year 8 resource materials contain a lot of direct knowledge teaching slides. Schools using Proper Science felt these had enough content so that it was not necessary to have a separate textbook. There is a Year 8 Mastery Practice Book.
How does the book help weaker students?
Teachers who trialled the book noted how accessible it was for low and middle ability students. Each idea is taught in small steps, with short sections, to avoid overloading students' working memory. The text structure has been designed for lower-level readers and includes reading to learn strategies. Assessment starts easy and gets more difficult.
How does it stretch stronger students?
The end of many spreads develop the concept in more depth, to provide more challenge. Assessment questions tests understanding rather than just recall. Each spread contains a context and puzzle to encourage students to apply the concept and develop problem-solving skills.
How does it prepare students for GCSE?
It gives your students a head start by helping them fully grasp the key concepts in science from the start of year 7. These strong foundations will allow them to master GCSE concepts more easily later. Worked examples demonstrate how to solve an apply (AO2) question and the the 'mixed-up questions' at the end of a chapter provide plenty of AO1 and AO2 practice.
How does it fill knowledge gaps from primary science?
Many students will start year 7 having missed large chunks of learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. So, chapters begin with a 2-page review which re-explains primary science concepts. Students can activate their prior knowledge and fill in any gaps - which are pre-requisites for new learning.
How can it help teachers to plan?
In trialling it helped 82% of teachers clarify the amount of detail and depth to teach for every concept. The order in each chapter offers a coherent learning progression to build an understanding sequence. It supports differentiated teaching by providing a resource that allows different students to work on specific sections, or answer different level questions.
How does it fit Proper Science KS3?
If you're using the Proper Science KS3 course, you'll find the book dovetails with the learning stages:
Activate: to fill in knowledge gaps after the pre-assessment
Acquire: to provide alternative explanations
Assess: to reinforce correct understandings after the diagnostic quiz
Apply: to prepare for Practice Book problems using the worked examples
Test: to use the ‘mixed-up questions’ to prepare for the end of unit quiz
Can I get protective covers for the books?
Many companies sell slip-over book covers you can use. You need to order a cover with 298 mm height (the height of the book is 297 mm). Usually, the width of the covers is adjustable (the width of the book is 220 mm).
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Payment methods
We accept payment by credit card and PayPal, and by invoice if you are a UK school. To set up Mastery Science as a supplier, download the company details.
Delivery
For the UK, there is free delivery for 20+ books. We deliver to most countries. Please contact us for a quote.
Our guarantee
There is a 30-day guarantee on physical books. We will refund the cost and you only pay the return postage. The books need to be received in their original condition. Please contact us to tell us you are returning your product.
It was written to help year 7 students learn to transfer the scientific knowledge to unfamiliar situation. It can also be used by students in other years to improve their understanding of the fundamental concepts. Learning to apply is what will give students access to the 60% of marks at GCSE that demand more than recalling content. The book uses a research-based approach to teach students how to solve different types of problems.
The Practice Book has a chapter on each unit in the year 7 curriculum, based on a 5-year curriculum and AQA's KS3 Science Syllabus. Download the sample material to see exactly what concepts and types of problems are included.
The first strategy studente need to learn is to evaluate the problem and what knowledge is needed to solve it. 'Detect' simulates how an expert looks at a question. They make sense of the situation, look beyond the superficial details to find the deep structure This allows them to recognise this as an example of a problem type they have seen before, and recall the organised information they need to solve - key concepts. It ensures that students avoid their inclination to just look at the keywords, and dive in risking misunderstanding the situation. Detect is broken down into smaller steps, usually: draw a diagram, show values, identify unknown, decide the concept
This encourages students to bring into their working memory all their existing knowledge, externalise it on paper (to reduce working memory demands), and then home in on what's relevant to solving the problem.
The third stage of the problem solving strategy is the actual solution process using the knowledge from Recall.The Solve starts by showing how to use the knowledge from Recall and models a step by step process of moving towards a solution for the problem.We teach students how to write answers scientifically, using a variety of structures like claim-evidence-reasoning, and problem-solution, and cause-effect.
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Helpful, and gave a clear understanding to my son.
M
Mr Chirag Patel
easy to understand science concepts
My son is in year 7 and he was struggling to understand concepts of science topics.This book is very well explained and easy for him to understand with examples and pictures.His interest in science has improved. I would definitely recommend for the children who struggles in science.Good for parents as well to teach.
A
Alexandros Terzis
Brilliant material!
Finally a textbook as you would expect it! Great to have as additional help not for just student, but also for parents! It explains all subjects in such a meaningful way and with beautiful pictures. Fantastic material, I'm looking forward using it along with my child.
C
Ciana Woodburn
Love this book
yes. Love this book and have given it to the teacher of bottom set who said it has helped hugely.
C
Caroline Neuberg
Research-based textbook
I think this book assimilates all the latest research based evidence on how learning takes place and uses it to display information in a very clear, engaging and supportive way.By combining real-life examples and triggering inquisitiveness in the reader, this book engages students not just to learn science but to comprehend concepts, leading to a deeper understanding of science. This is done by presenting and more importantly organising knowledge using research based evidence on how learning takes place. Text and pictures are cleverly combined for strong and supportive dual coding process. Active reading strategies, used throughout the book, reinforce deep knowledge assimilation.”
